Manchester United 2014/2015 Premier League Season (+ CC & FA Cup)

LVG: We have too many players who like to score.

No shite, you don't sayyyyy what did he expect starting three strikers lol

halamadrid2 wrote:LVG: We have too many players who like to score.

No shite, you don't sayyyyy what did he expect starting three strikers lol

loooooooooooooooool

we need a real general at the back. Someone we can depend upon night in and out. Tbf, our defence are too error-prone when all the old guards are gone

This loss is definitely on LVG after the penalty there was absolutely no organisation AT ALL. Instead of subbing on yet more attacking players he should have subbed on Fletcher and switched formation to 4-5-1 to take the sting out of the game. He really underestimated them and United's defence just collapsed. Here are some screenshots highlighting the problems.

Look at the United defenders for the third goal. They have lined up in a diamond shape ffs. Rafael at the tip, Rojo and Smalling besides eachother and Blackett at the back. Either these guys know fck all about defending or they were clearly not given instructions on how to defend.



Then you have the HUGE space between the CBs and Blind not dropping back to cover that space. Just look at Cambiasso venturing in with noone picking him up. Rafael helping Smalling deal with Ulloa instead of making sure nobody was behind him. It was just school boy defending by guys who have not been given clear instructions



Just look at that space ffs . This was for the 4-3 goal. The closest anyone came to stopping that goal was rooney. It reeks of a team with absolutely no tactics whatsoever





Then you have the nightmare performance of Rojo. Just look at this, Vardy was just jogging around behind him and he was just oblivious to what was going on. DiMaria should have helped him there but Rojo's job is to defend the winger/fullback closest to his "area" and not venture up pressuring the guy who isn't even attempting to get past him, thats the wingers job. Look where Hererra is, he is where blind should be, imagine if leicester had switched play to the other side United would've been completely exposed



Hererra and Blind going for the same ball in the box



And it kept going on like that until the final whistle. I mean if this doesn't scream of cluelessness I don't know what will. All players just pointing at some random guy to mark without knowing who to mark themselves. I simply just REFUSE to believe these guys are that stupid. Prime Vidic and Ferdinand could not have prevented this collapse when the midfield especially Blind were equally clueless



LVG has alot to do to sort out the defending as a team. Unless he does that these average defenders will continue to get exposed pretty badly

Nice work Hala. I think this highlights why buying another defender, is probably needed, but won't fix the main issue. Is that defender meant to tell Rafael to watch the space behind him, Rojo to watch the space behind him, Herrera to cover the right side of the pitch, Blind to mind the midfield runner and Di Maria to help Rojo out. All in one instance.

We also made only one tackle between the 60-80th minute. We collapsed mentally.

Our defence is also so injury prone too. This is the first time Rafael, Smalling, Rojo and Blackett played together and it shows. They look so clueless

That is a fantastic post, Halamadrid.

Looking at them stills, it's really worrying. Not only did the defence lose their heads, but the whole team did defensively. That is worrying to me.

LVG messed up hugely yesterday. I agree with you. From the subs he made right to the tactics after we went 1-3 up.

I re-watched the 4th goal, the whole of our team was on the attack and Rojo and Blackett stayed back just in case of a counter. Rojo instead pushes up trying to play a one-two with Mata that is just not on, who loses the ball easily. And then we're left with one defender back, which is the situation which we could have avoided if Rojo didn't push forward.

I think some of the situations would have been avoided if Di Maria helped Rojo too. Idk, he might not have been told he has to, he doesn't seem like the type of player that would shirk defensive responsibility. For the Cambiasso goal, if Blind covers the gap between the CBs, then he leaves Nugent all on his own, and it will be similar to the first goal we conceded vs Swansea. Blind is covering Herrera, Herrera is covering Di Maria, but then no one is covering Blind.

The first screenshot is the Cambiasso goal. It was just a clusterfck, everyone concentrated in the middle of the penalty box and Nugent/Drinkwater (cant remember who) just randomly shoots hoping for a deflection and instead it falls nicely to Cambiasso who has been in there the whole time and just slots the ball in the net

One disadvantage of the diamond is that there are no wingers to help the fullbacks out because they are all CMs so there should have been a system to deal with that especially after the first half. Lvg should've told DiMaria to give Rojo assistance since he was clearly struggling or changed formation to one involving wingers who's basic defensive duty is to cover runs behind the fullback. But nothing

Liverpool made the diamond successful last season although they conceded alot but I dont know how they dealt with the fullbacks issue since I didn't watch them

I definitely think this formation is good when you are attacking but it has been found wanting when defending. Hopefully LVG sorts that out for the next game. It was encouraging that he felt you were too attack minded after 3-1 because I felt that too. Everyone running up to try and get goals themselves when it was best to stay back. Rojo being in no mans land was frustrating since he didn't add anything when attacking

Meh, this is the worst you could've done tbh. And if I was a fan I'd be happy with this result because it highlighted basic problems that could've been badly exposed vs City for example and I think that's harder to take for the players than a loss when all rivals lost too . You don't have crap players anymore who would somehow be able to outshit their previous performance. These are guys that have won many many trophies between them and who have experience getting back from distasteful losses with something to prove next game

I wouldn't worry at all if I were you especially if Lvg sorts out the fullbacks issue because everything else seems really good

halamadrid2 wrote:

Meh, this is the worst you could've done tbh. And if I was a fan I'd be happy with this result because it highlighted basic problems that could've been badly exposed vs City for example and I think that's harder to take for the players than a loss when all rivals lost too . You don't have crap players anymore who would somehow be able to outshit their previous performance. These are guys that have won many many trophies between them and who have experience getting back from distasteful losses with something to prove next game

I wouldn't worry at all if I were you especially if Lvg sorts out the fullbacks issue because everything else seems really good

I agree here completely man.

If we can get past the psychological blip that might have befallen after this disastrous game and then also address the full back problem which I think we will pretty soon too with Shaw's arrival, things will only go up from here. Rojo might be a good CB. lets see.

The biggest problem was majority of these lads were playing for the first or 2nd time together. It will take at least a month to tweak them to the right wavelength and understanding. Herrera and Blind for eg. that going for the same ball and all clearly stemmed from not playing together before. I am not worried about that hence because its only going to improve fro hereon.

I feel better now. Looking at it from a positive perspective, we were in total control till Clattenburg fcked us over. This was against a solid team that troubled Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton. We went to their ground and dominated them, and were on our way to beating them comfortably.

I don't think for one second that they would have came back and scored four goals in a space of 20 mins had Clattenburg not awarded them that very soft penalty. Heck, even their 1st goal was out of play. Boost that gave Leicester was huge.

I have confidence we'll batter teams in the league this season, home and away, and we won't be getting Clattenburg officiating our games every week.

I'm liking the progression

yep ^

Roy Hodgson considering fast-tracking Manchester United defender Tyler Blackett into senior England squad
Dearth of decent defenders could force manager to choose untried and inexperienced youngsters to aid England's Euro 2016 campaign

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/11114704/Roy-Hodgson-considering-fast-tracking-Manchester-United-defender-Tyler-Blackett-into-senior-England-squad.html




He got sent off and now he's in contention to get get called-up, you couldn't make it up. He showed potential in the first-half, but he's too inexperienced right now. If he plays any minutes for England now and makes a mistake, it will stick with him for awhile.

May be the plan is well to ease him into the side. In 2 years time he will be 22 and if continued in this same vein has the potential to become something really noteworthy.

Also for a 20 year old, and for someone who has played just 5 games so far , I personally feel he is not making that much errors. Its generally expected of him to falter a lot more. He is holding up well. And the guy looks like he has a cool head too on his shoulders.

But that's the point, he's only played 5 games, this is just too fast. Let Roy call up Lescott if he wants left-footed CB and let Blackett grow naturally. This is unnecessary attention, imo. Blackett doesn't even start for the U21s.

An interesting blog by Richard Cann. He writes about Sunday's capitulation, Rooney being blamed for everything, our lacklustre defense and LVG's start as United manager so far.
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I wish I was angry. I think it would be easier if I had a burning desire to launch inanimate objects like Chris Smalling through a window. But after watching United capitulate and lose 5-3 having led 3-1 with 28 minutes to go at Leicester City I’m filled with something far more concerning: alarm.

The frustrating thing is that in the first hour of the game Di Maria, Falcao, Rooney and Herrera played some football that would make the angels weep with joy, the best I’ve seen the team play for years. The former scored a goal most definitely straight from heaven. Yes, at 2-0 up and with the game dead, Rojo, Evans and Rafael contrived to let Leicester reply straight from the f*cking kick-off, but United responded and seemed to have put the game to bed at 3-1. What happened after that defied belief.

Mark Clattenburg is a referee I have a lot of time for. They all make mistakes, of course. He’s not the best Premier League referee and nor is he the worst, and after what the vindictive little f*ckwits at Chelsea put him through I’ll always have some sympathy for and patience with him. But the penalty he gave Leicester after Jamie Vardy clearly fouled Rafael and then swan-dived under the following non-challenge by the same player was an utter f*cking disgrace. It’s an over-used phrase but they really were just about the worst two decisions you’ll ever see. And that turned the match. But at that point it was 3-2 and the game was still there for the taking. Instead, United collectively lost their ar*es and capitulated in a manner that I can never, ever remember them doing before. The team lost any sense of composure and organisation and defecated in its own pants. And in less than half an hour it conceded four goals. To Leicester City. And Louis Van Gaal just sat, passively, as his team capitulated. To have accepted post-match that his team were too gung-ho at this point and yet not thought to have articulated this to his players is just plain odd. His substitutions and tactical changes were again strange and his jovial “Oh, but we made mistakes, you cannot do that” and claims that the “process will take time” are starting to wear very thin indeed. Moyes took stick for similar remarks, albeit delivered slightly differently and it would be hypocritical not to apply such a measure to the Dutchman, even if he has earned the right in his career to more patience. Over at St. Marys, his compatriot Ronald Koeman took over a Southampton side which was in the process of being disembowelled. He bought replacements and has swiftly fashioned a solid, exciting and, so far, excellently functioning unit. He doesn’t have Di Maria, Falcao et al either.

What he does have though are hungry players, leaders and a relatively balanced squad. Wayne Rooney was almost certainly appointed United captain this summer out of default, pretty much the only long-term servant of the club capable of staying fit for 3 games in a row and who would more than likely be in the team. As normal, those who can’t see past their irrational hatred for the man blamed him for the loss on Sunday, for being an unfit captain and for the f*cking war in the Middle East. To make this point someone produced a small vine of Rooney shouting at his defence after the concession of the equalising goal, a goal in which his poor clearance had been somewhat complicit. “How dare he shout at those poor little lambs in frustration”, the Twitterati cried, ignoring the fact that he was the only one who appeared to give a flying f*ck after the goal went in and also ignoring the way in which former captains like Nemanja Vidic and Roy Keane would eviscerate teammates even when at fault themselves. Keane’s legendary temper and willingness to flay anyone in training or on the pitch, regardless of whether or not it was deserved, is now viewed as humorous and character-building for his colleagues, part of a necessary toughening up process. Rooney, on the other hand, gives some of those around him a good ear-bashing and all we hear is “that’s going to destroy their confidence.” F*ck me. If a player can’t take a bit of industrial language on a football pitch then should they be playing for United? After yesterday the answer to that question may well be ‘no’.

People see what they want to see with Rooney. Is he playing well at the moment? No. Is he the worst in the squad? Not by a long shot. And when did captaincy become so important? Should United players need a captain to inspire them to perform? Only when it’s Rooney it seems. One of the options considered as most likely when Louis Van Gaal took over was that RVP would be given the captaincy. This is the same RVP who was just abysmal again yesterday, a goal or not, and he has been all season. Passionless and poor, he could consider himself very lucky indeed to have even started at Leicester. But different rules apply to those not called Rooney. At the back, Tyler Blackett was having a solid game until Jonny Evans had to be taken off, replaced by the ever-sh*te Chris Smalling. With Marcos Rojo clearly having had too many Weetabix on the morning of the match and with Rafael as flaky as ever, Smalling took any semblance of organisation at the back and shoved it up his gormless a*se. With no competent leader to follow, Blackett’s game swiftly went down the sh*tter and with half the team abdicating any responsibility for defending the afternoon swiftly descended into a Mongolian *bleep*. Take a look at the fourth goal, a long ball over the top for Jamie Vardy, in acres of space and able to run through unchallenged to score.



Look who’s in the picture for United. Blackett is one, left totally exposed by Rojo disappearing from this plane of existence and Chris Smalling, his supposed centre-back partner, f*cking off up field to who knows where. In shot you see Smalling 30 yards ahead of the Mancunian defender and Vardy, not quite believing his luck, running hell for leather into the space where the dribbling buffoon should be. With Rafael having also gone full Forrest Gump that leaves the ‘ever running in quicksand’ Daley Blind and, yep you’ve guessed it, Wayne Rooney as the only players making the slightest effort to get back and defend. But yeah, Sunday was all Rooney’s fault and he’s the only captain ever to shout at the poor lambs in his team.

Regardless of all of this, and the fact that Van Gaal recognised that his team were too offensive after the second Leicester goal but proceeded, as he usually does, to do absolutely nothing about it, the most concerning thing about Sunday’s abomination was that it is the natural consequence of having a squad with an embarrassment of riches in attack but, in terms of quality and reliability, a quite frankly embarrassing defence. None of the full backs (I excuse Luke Shaw on account of the fact that we haven’t seen him yet) in the squad can defend, which is fine if you have strong centre-backs, but, to be frank, none of ours can manage 180 minutes on a football pitch without a) going lame and b) mentally f*cking off to Andromeda and defending like blerts. I feel incredibly sorry for Tyler Blackett. Yes, he’s getting the chance to play for Manchester United, but he’s been thrown to the lions. This is a kid who had two very dodgy loans in the Championship last year and who clearly isn’t remotely ready for what he’s been faced with, or rather he’s not ready to play regularly in THIS defence. At times he’s played very competently indeed, but without the guidance of those around him he’s lost at sea. And yet he’s suddenly become pretty much the first centre-back on Van Gaal’s team-sheet. When Jonny Evans was breaking into the team he had Nemanja Vidic to guide him. Evans still largely needs an experienced partner to play at his best. Blackett has Phil Jones, our best defender this season but never fit for more that 3-4 games in a row, Evans, whose game has bombed without the aforementioned experienced partner and Chris Smalling, who learned the game in non-league and looks rather like he should buy a one-way ticket back there. What chance has he got? He shouldn’t be in this position because United and Van Gaal should have thrown big money at a defender and, failing to get prime targets, should have invested in an experienced head, even if they weren’t a long term fix. Christ, Ron Vlaar would have done.

What is disturbing now is that, with the transfer window closed, Jones and Evans injured and Blackett now suspended there is sweet f*ck all we can do about it. Van Gaal may be a fine coach, but he’s not f*cking Yoda and can’t make a collection of utterly inadequate defenders competent. After six games against very, very mediocre opposition, the defence has looked jittery, exposed and lacking in cohesion in five of them and in the other, against QPR, they hardly had to touch the ball. The manager can put any combination of players together that he likes and they’re going to make mistakes, particularly without Jones, who held the rest of the rabble together at Burnley and Sunderland. There is simply no way that this group of players can defend well enough to win enough games to achieve our goals this season, regardless of how wonderful and flowing United are in attack. We’ll win some games handsomely and lose more terribly, like Sunday.

This is a United team full of nice guys. Seeing the shot of the Spanish-speaking contingent at the club sat around a table after a meal together made me remember what a terrific bunch of people we have at the club. If you were a girl you’d happily take nearly all of them home to meet your mum, safe in the knowledge that they’d be polite and courteous. Unfortunately that’s f*ck all use to a football team with aspirations to be excelling at the top level. All of Fergie’s great teams had their fair share of double hard b*stards and total ar*eholes who’d weed out the weak and drive the team on to perform. It’s a sign of how soft we’ve become that fans are singling out Wayne Rooney for being the only one on the pitch to lose his sh*t after he’d seen his team throw away a two goal lead. And to complain that he may have hurt the poor darlings’ feelings? You’ve all gone soft, too. There is culpability all round here: by Moyes for being such a useless c*nt that Vidic felt that he couldn’t stay (oh how we need him now), by Van Gaal and Woodward for not strengthening a position that they knew was utterly inadequate, by the players for losing their collective bottle in a manner that I’ve never EVER seen from a United side before and hope never to see again. I suspect I will. I’m certain that I’ll also see moments from Di Maria, Falcao and others that will take my breath away, football that we could only have dreamed of in the last few years. For that we should be very grateful. But ultimately we could fall well short of our goals because those behind them have a collective lack of talent and, well, balls. That can be rectified in January, but we could have left ourselves with an awful lot to do by then.

Link: http://www.prideofalleurope.com/2014/09/the-week-at-united-rooney-to-blame-for-is-insurgency-in-syria/
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He touches on many valid points. The one thing I don't agree with is his harsh criticism on Smalling. In context, Smalling wasn't really much to blame considering he just came back from injury.

^ great article. The constant swear words however was a tad distraction. But its understandable as the guy I believe is a hardcore fan and will be worried like all of us.

Richard Cann wrote a lot of good stuff on Moyes, but this just sounds like an angry rant. Rafael and Smalling weren't at fault for the collapse, he's just trying to point fingers and that picture is very deceiving, we were attacking from the right just a couple seconds earlier that's why both Rafael and Smalling were pushed up. The one that shouldn't have pushed forward before Smalling and Rafael made it back was Rojo.

Blackett, yes has been thrown into the deep end, but this is usually how it happens with CBs, you hardly ever rotate your CBs, unless they get injured. Look at Chambers the reason he got game time at CB at all this season. Okay Arsenal are not as disorganised as us, but there's never the perfect situation to bring a CB in. We also threw Januzaj into the lions den last season, we played him against Chelsea, not only that, it was away too. He was by far our best player that day and should have got two assists if Welbeck could finish/or get into the box at all. We also played him vs Spurs where he got an assist, and our attack was also very dysfunctional last season. We had a central midfield that didn't pass the ball forward. Blackett made mistakes, it's fine he will learn, if you always look for the perfect situation to play your youngsters, you will hardly find it.

It's also quite obvious van Gaal wanted to buy a leader, he just couldn't find one. Which is different to him thinking the defence is fine, he did try buy Arsenal's captain after all. Barcelona, PSG and Liverpool all bought CBs this season, and they found it hard too. I know Benatia went to Bayern, but it's quite obvious he wanted a left-footed CB. Okay maybe he should have got another, but maybe he wanted to give Smalling, Jones and Evans a chance. And tbf to him Jones has done well so far. We had leaders last season anyway, and we didn't do well defensively. I'm sorry but Vidic didn't organise the defence vs Liverpool or vs Man City or vs Fulham or the countless other times. In fact, some of the times he was the problem. When you concede five goals it is usually more than one reason. That's not me saying I don't think we need another CB, but you can see why van Gaal didn't get a CB, it's a combination of maybe wanting to give Jones/Smalling a chance + there being no world class left footed CBs available so he had to get Rojo. It's not as black and white as he made it seem. Leicester won't score 5 goals again this season, and there's no way we have the worst defence in the league.

Another thing, I thought the mental breakdown was something post fergie, but you only have to look back to Fergie's last CL game to know it's a long standing issue. When Nani got wrongly sent-off. We collapsed then too.

I agree with all that BB.

And touching on the last part of your post, it seems our players have an issue of crumbling when it comes to poor decisions by the refs. Which is bizarre, because even with new players, the whole team still crumbled. :/

Yeah, most of the players didn't play vs Real Madrid, but they crumbled in the same way. It's strange. They need to keep calm and realise they're still in charge of the situation

Ian Ladyman @Ian_Ladyman_DM · 11h

Injuries have hurt Evans, Jones, Smalling. Evans hasn't played more than 7 consecutive BPL games in 2 seasons. Jones 11,Smalling 12. #mufc

This is really bad.

It has stunted their development.

Smalling's first season at the club, under the wing of Vidic, looked like a WC cb in the making. Had it all- strength, good reading of the game, great tackler, quality aerial ability and even had good technique, enough to bring the ball out to the centre and pass it.
Now he seems a shadow of the player, actually looks as though he has regressed. A shame really.

These players were meant to be the bedrock of our defence at this stage, but sadly due to being so injury prone, they will ultimately be phased out by the club either next summer or the following for ready made quality defenders.

Jones for me is the most talented. His brash no nonsense style is what is hindering him the most. The guy will lose a leg if it meant he had a chance of clearing the ball.

Evans, I've lost all hope for him. Not only has he become a liability, but he's injury record is worst than Jones and Smalling.

I don't know what these re-occuring injuries stem from. Perhaps training methods. Rafael seems to be getting the bug more and more aswell.

It's ridiculously frustrating.

Smalling has picked up an injury

I can't fcking believe it!

Unreal.

Honestly, it's time we bought an entire new backline. We cannot rely on these guys, they are made of glass.

Absolutely ridiculous. How is Smalling injured already when he has just come back from injury Possibly aggravated it on Sunday. I don't know, don't really care anymore.

Looks either one of Blind or one of the reserves will play as CB v West Ham.

aaargh.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2768698/Chris-Smalling-injury-scare-leaves-Manchester-United-sweating-crisis-central-defence.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

at least when jones does play you still see his quality....just never is healthy long enough for anyone who doesn't watch every United match to notice

The injuries really has affected their growth. Even though they're midfielders, you can see the same happened to Wilshere and Ramsey. Played in different positions as well like our CBs. Ramsey still hasn't overcome the injuries, but he's overcome the injuries effecting his form.

There's really not that many players that can get injured and come back in top form. The only guy I can think of Aguero, he can come back from a month out injured and play against us like he's scored 5 in 5.

It's a shame, because all 3 of Jones, Smalling and Evans have shown promise at some point. This season will be there last chance of being able to prove their fitness, maybe even less, until January. I really hope they do, especially Jones.

Rafael---Blind---Rojo---Shaw

Will most likely be the defence on Saturday. With Fletcher in the holding role.

Man....looks like it's going to be one of those game where we'll have to outscore the opposition.

I've been impressed with West Ham's attack this season. Sakho and Valencia have hit the ground running and are full of pace and strength. Can def see them causing us problems and being a nuissance all afternoon.

And he wanted to buy Vermaelen too. We'd have no CBs right now. Got really lucky on that one. Smalling might be fine for Saturday though. We'll see in van Gaal's presser I guess.